Broncos' Tebow Doesn't Rule Out Possible Future in Politics

From NFL.com

By Simon Samano

Accustomed to being questioned by the media? Check.

Knows how to handle himself in front of a crowd? Check.

Has the ability to galvanize (and divide) the American people? Check.

Is on the front lines of one of the country's hot-button political issues? Check.

Yup, Tim Tebow definitely could have a career in politics once his playing days are over. The Broncos' quarterback didn't rule it out, either, when the subject was broached in an interview on the Golf Channel's "Feherty Live."

"It could be something in my future," Tebow said. "It's something I'll have to think about and if I pray about, you know, I have no idea right now. But possibly."

Tebow's consideration makes complete sense. After all, Tebow makes no bones about his evangelical Christian faith and concordant pro-life stance on abortion, something he feels so strongly about that he starred in a Super Bowl ad about the issue in 2010. Tebow is already a darling among the Republican party, too, with more than one GOP presidential candidate courting him for an endorsement.

So, yeah, all things considered, why wouldn't politics seem like a good fit for Tebow?

 

 

Gentle Tebow Ad Has Big Impact

From LifeSiteNews
By James Tillman

Approximately 4% of those who support abortion were lead to "personally reconsider [their] opinion about abortion" after watching the pro-life Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, according to a new Barna study.

Approximately 92.6 million Americans watched the ad when it aired February 7, during what is normally the most-viewed broadcast in America each year. Because slightly less than half of repondents in the poll self-identified as pro-abortion, the data suggests that about 1.7 million pro-abortion viewers reconsidered their position after watching the spot.

In addition, a majority of respondents saw the ad as both positive and suitable for the Super Bowl slot. Only 8% of respondents found it offensive.

Yet this was not the ad's only effect.

The ad, featuring a short message in which Pam speaks of how Tim almost failed to make it into the world, directs viewers to a longer video on the Focus on the Family website.

"Our [website] traffic jumped to 40 times its normal volume [during the game]," Focus on the Family spokeswoman Monica Schleicher said, according to the Denver Post. "In the hour during the pre-game [broadcast], when the other ad aired twice, our Web traffic was 20 times our normal volume."

In the powerful, ten-minute interview with Tim Tebow's parents on the Focus on the Family website, Pam and Bob Tebow describe how they had prayed for Tim to be born.

"We were very excited that I became pregnant with Timmy," Pam recounts, "and we went to see the doctor there in the town that we lived in; she said it wasn't a baby at all, he was a mass of fetal tissue, and that I needed to abort him immediately if I was going to save my life."

During the following very difficult pregnancy, Pam said that she thought she would lose Tim nearly daily; nevertheless, she continued to experience peace in resignation to God's will.

When Jim Daly asked what advice the Tebows would give to a young lady with an unplanned pregnancy, they were ready with an answer.

"I would say that baby's not a mistake, though it might seem that way to her," said Pam, "and that God will enable her to do the right thing and to give her the encouragement that she needs, but that there's also help for her."

"And girls have those options. They have a choice. And God really has his hand on the situation. There's so many people out there willing to help if they give them the chance."

Bob Tebow had a similarly simple message.

"The first thing I would say to you if you have a surprise pregnancy is: God loves you. God loves you, and he loves your baby," he said. "There are lots of people; they'll help you. Don't kill your baby."

The effect of the ad was multiplied by the piles of publicity pro-abortion groups generated by demanding that CBS refuse to show the ad, and complaining that the Super Bowl should not be a political event.

In a recent editorial, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly mentioned that "The criticism we've received from this ad has been curious."

"Many who consider themselves 'pro-choice' have found fault with us for celebrating Pam Tebow's choice," he continued. "Those who hold to such a radical position clearly appear to be more pro-abortion than pro-choice."

He continued by suggesting a few "modest changes" that might save lives: instituting a consent or waiting period at abortion facilities, requiring doctors to give women the option to view an ultrasound prior to an abortion, requiring parental involvement before abortion, and encouraging adoption.

Focus on the Family's Masterstroke

Focus on the Family showed themselves to be brilliant at public relations, and the weeks of furor over their simple pro-life message demonstrated for all the world that the militant abortionists aren't about choice at all. They don't even believe in free speech. Blood-covered and conscience-hardened, they are about protecting the only kind of obscene profits the Obama administration supports.

Here is the full Tebow story told by Tim Tebow's parents.

Tebow's Defensive Line: 50,000 and Counting

NOW and Company Are on Wrong Side of America, New York Times

Today Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser announced that over 50,000 Americans have submitted comments of support to football star Tim Tebow through the Susan B. Anthony List website, www.blockhardfortebow.com. The comments support the Tebow family's decision to share their story in Focus on the Family's pro-life Super Bowl advertisement. The National Organization for Women (NOW) is leading feminist groups in a campaign demanding CBS pull the ad from its Super Bowl schedule.

"NOW and company are on the wrong side of American public opinion," said Dannenfelser. "In only four days, over fifty thousand Americans have sent messages of support to the Tebow family on www.blockhardfortebow.com. The outcry of national support for Tim Tebow's pro-life leadership illustrates the strength of the growing American pro-life majority."

The Susan B. Anthony List-sponsored website, www.blockhardfortebow.com, was launched late Wednesday, January 27, 2010. Already 50,000 visitors to the site sent personal comments of support to Tebow. Visitors can also view a short ESPN video about Tebow. Over the same period, the abortion-rights group EMILY's List has collected only 16,000 anti-CBS petition signatures.

"NOW's campaign against CBS, the Tebow family and Focus on the Family is going nowhere fast," said Dannenfelser. "Old guard feminists like Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling are struggling to defend their opposition to the ad, and their desperate arguments ring hollow. The 'pro-choice' label has worn out its usefulness – it is an empty platitude for the pain women feel when they've made the abortion choice. Arguments that abortion is somehow as liberating and self-sacrificing as Pam Tebow's decision to choose life in the face of great personal pain just don't stand the straight face test. Such callous attitudes grate on the conscience and defy experience."

On Sunday, January 31, 2010, Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling published a Washington Post commentary arguing, "abortion is as tough and courageous a decision as is the decision to continue a pregnancy."

The New York Times editorialized in favor of CBS' decision to run the Tebow Ad on Sunday, January 31, 2010, arguing that NOW's "protest is puzzling and dismaying." Editors went on to criticize the campaign's "lame attempt to portray the ad as life-threatening," and argued that "CBS was right to change its policy of rejecting paid advocacy commercials from groups other than political candidates."

Tim Tebow Defends Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad under Fire

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

College football superstar Tim Tebow is standing fast behind a pro-life ad developed by Focus on the Family and set to air on CBS on Super Bowl Sunday. Although the ad has not been released, abortion advocacy groups are already demanding that it be scrapped, since it likely features the story of how Tebow’s mother chose life when doctors were urging her abort her now-famous son.

The college football superstar, who just ended his last season quarterbacking for the Florida Gators, has been an anomaly among top-tier athletes. Tebow makes no bones about his Christian faith, his pro-life convictions, and the fact that he wants to save himself for marriage.

But Tebow’s pro-life convictions spring from an unusually personal source: back in 1987, his mother contracted amoebic dysentery while pregnant with him in the Philippines, and doctors recommended abortion. Had Pam Tebow taken that advice, Tebow fans would never have seen the football phenomenon win the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and carry the Gators to victory in two major championships.

At a Sunday press conference in Mobile, Tebow told the gaggle of reporters: "I know some people won't agree with [the ad], but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe, and I'm never shy about that."

"I don't feel like I'm very preachy about it, but I do stand up for what I believe. Unfortunately in today's society not many athletes tend to do that. So I'm just standing for something."

But Tebow’s standing for pro-life values has outraged abortion advocacy groups, who fear the effect the Focus on the Family ad could have on millions of Super Bowl viewers on Feb. 7. Tebow’s story is already credited with having influenced a number of women to choose not to abort their babies.

The Women’s Media Center has been coordinating efforts with the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority to pressure CBS, the broadcasting station hosting the Super Bowl this year, to revoke the 30-second ad called “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.”

"An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year -- an event designed to bring Americans together," Jehmu Greene, president of the Women's Media Center, told the Associated Press.

Last year, the National Football League and NBC (then broadcasting the Super Bowl) elected to nix an advertisement sponsored by the Catholic watchdog group Fidelis, which hailed the success of President Obama overcoming the difficult circumstances of his early life and featured the message "Life: Imagine the Potential."

However one pro-life group says that feminist groups’ obsession with the as-yet-unseen content of the Tebow ad highlights an abysmal ideological attitude when it comes to defending women’s rights and dignity.

“In the three and a half years that I advised FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on indecency issues, I can’t recall one time that NOW ever spoke out about the sexually graphic or misogynistic content on CBS,” Penny Nance, CEO for Concerned Women for America told LifeSiteNews.com. “I find it laughable that NOW has a problem with Tim Tebow sharing his own story. If NOW really cared about women they would stop flacking for the abortion industry and start working on behalf of women.”

Focus on the Family has dismissed the controversy over the upcoming ad.

"There’s nothing political and controversial about it,” said Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for Focus on the Family. “When the day arrives, and you sit down to watch the game on TV, those who oppose it will be quite surprised at what the ad is all about."

With the Super Bowl set to kick off in about two weeks, CBS, which has already reviewed and approved the ad’s script, has given no indication of yanking the Tebow ad.

Tim Tebow Pro-Life Superbowl Ad in the Works?

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

Rumors of a pro-life advertisement featuring the story of University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and angling for a Superbowl slot have surfaced following reports of a project in the works at the Evangelical organization Focus on the Family.

While as yet not publicly acknowledged, the Colorado Independent's Rich Tosches reported that the 30-second pro-life spot is expected by insiders at Focus on the Family to highlight the popular quarterback's mother’s refusal to abort Tebow, despite doctor’s advice to the contrary.

After taking drugs to battle amoebic dysentery during a trip to the Philippines in the 1980s, Pam Tebow refused the advice of physicians who suggested she abort Timothy because the drugs may have affected his development. Pam eventually gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby boy.

Tim Tebow, who was homeschooled before becoming a college football star, now frequently draws attention for his outspoken devotion to traditional Christian values. At the Allstate Sugar Bowl on New Year's day, Tebow's final collegiate game, the player continued a tradition of featuring a Bible passage on his eyeblack: this time, it was Ephesians 2:8-10.

Focus family formation studies director Glenn Stanton told LifeSiteNews.com that the organization has “no comment” about the rumors.

“But,” he added, “you will want to watch the Super Bowl.”

The ad would need to be approved by the National Football League and CBS, the network hosting the Superbowl game February 7. Last year, NBC and the NFL chose to nix an advertisement sponsored by the Catholic watchdog group Fidelis, which hailed the success of President Obama despite the difficult circumstances of his early life and featured the message "Life: Imagine the Potential."